Sunday, April 20, 2014

(FROM BARRON'S 4/21/14)
For much of America, spring means a trip to Home Depot to load up on
garden supplies, deck furniture, or perhaps a gleaming new grill. After an
unusually harsh winter, the nation's largest home-improvement chain is bracing
for an onslaught, and the folks in the orange aprons are ready. Indeed, Home
Depot is hiring 80,000 additional workers to man its miles of aisles of
warm-weather supplies. The sense of renewal is hard to miss, and it extends well
beyond the blooming begonias and jam-packed parking lot.
Much like the stores, Home Depot's shares (ticker: HD) could come to life
in the months ahead, especially if the housing market, a crucial driver of
revenue and profit, shows sustained signs of improvement. An uptick in housing,
market- share gains at the expense of an ailing Sears Holdings (SHLD), and
substantial supply-chain improvements could help lift the stock to $95 in the
next 12 months from a recent $77. Add a dividend yield of 2.4%, and investors
could see a total return exceeding 25%.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Investors are always looking for stocks that are poised to beat at earnings season and Independent Bank Corp. (INDB) may be one such company. The firm has earnings coming up pretty soon, and events are shaping up quite nicely for their report.

That is because Independent Bank is seeing favorable earnings estimate revision activity as of late, which is generally a precursor to an earnings beat. After all, analysts raising estimates right before earnings—with the most up-to-date information possible—is a pretty good indicator of some favorable trends underneath the surface for INDB in this report.

In fact, the Most Accurate Estimate for the current quarter is currently at 57 cents per share for INDB, compared to a broader Zacks Consensus Estimate of 55 cents per share. This suggests that analysts have very recently bumped up their estimates for INDB, giving the stock a Zacks Earnings ESP of 3.64% heading into earnings season.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Baird believes the recent pullback in Tesla shares may be due to the market pricing in the potential for weak results. The firm is more cautious heading into what will likely be an uneventful quarter but sees the company as
well positioned for the future. Baird sees its gigafactory site selection,
partner announcements, the marketing campaign for the ModelX, and updates on
global trends as upcoming catalysts. Shares are Outperform rated with a $275
price target.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

(FROM BARRON'S 4/7/14)
Stocks finished generally to the upside last week, but a painful and
lightning-fast shellacking Friday nearly swamped the gains, leaving investors
shaken about the market's near-term direction.
The pivot came Friday around 11 a.m. Until then, a number of
decent-to-good macroeconomic data releases during the week had boosted the
market to an all- time intraday high. That evaporated when highflying biotech,
technology, and social-media stocks, like Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (ticker:
REGN), Netflix (NFLX), and Tesla Motors (TSLA), plunged.

(FROM BARRON'S 4/7/14)
Aging tech giants are suddenly enjoying youthful stock gains. Microsoft is
up 39% over the past year; Xerox, 33%; and Western Digital, 78%. That compares
with a 21% gain for the Standard & Poor's 500.
Hewlett-Packard (ticker: HPQ) stands out, not just for its 46% rise over
the past year, but for its valuation, which remains humble. At 8.7 times
projected earnings for the next four quarters, it trades at a 44% discount to
the market. By comparison, Xerox (XRX), at close to 10 times earnings, could
almost be mistaken for a glamour stock.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Tesla Motors' hot streak in its No. 2 market Norway gained additional
steam in March, with its electric Model S sedan breaking the previous record for
monthly sales of a single model--regardless of how it is powered--in the small
Nordic nation.
The Silicon Valley-based maker of electric cars sold 1,493 Model S sedans
to Norwegians in March, according to registrations reported by Norwegian
transportation officials, more than double its typical monthly sales in Norway
and well in excess of volumes typical for the top monthly seller in that market.
Tesla, like Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., has looked to the
Scandinavian nation as one of the most important markets for electric cars in
the world.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Robert Nardelli, who used to run Chrysler, was on Bloomberg T.V. today and
revealed that he's something of a fan of what Elon Musk is trying to do with
Tesla ( TSLA).
In fact, Nardelli calls Tesla's sales strategy "brilliant:"
A good friend of mine in Arizona traveled to California...puts his modest
$ 40,000 down payment to hold slot, goes back to Arizona. The car is then
delivered to him on a flatbed. A technician spends an hour with him, showing him
how to operate it. Fast forward a few months later. Technician calls and says, "
Your 12 volt battery is not functioning appropriately. We'll be there to change
it."